Market Town Awards
Action for Market Towns founded the Market Town Awards in 2004 to recognise and showcase initiatives that are helping our small market towns to adapt to change and flourish.
The Press Association is the Market Town Awards Media Partner and the Awards are supported by the Big Lottery Fund.
Who can enter?
The traditional definition of a market town is one where agriculture dominates in a settlement that serves a rural hinterland.
However, for the Market Town Awards, the presence of a ‘market’ as such is not the determining feature – more important is the relationship between the town and its hinterland.
Towns eligible to enter the Market Town Awards:
- have a population of between 2,000 and 35,000,
- offer at least convenience shopping and meet some weekly and specialist needs,
- act as a service centre for their hinterland and local community (providing, for example, a bank/cash point, doctors surgery/health centre, secondary school, library and so on).
What are the categories?
Towns can enter their projects in 1 of 4 categories:
- Environment and Culture
- Social and Community
- Business and Economy
- Partnership and Strategic Working
Which regions are eligible?
The Market Town Awards currently cover England’s 8 regions:
- South West
- South East
- East of England
- West Midlands
- East Midlands
- Yorkshire & Humber
- North West
- North East
Celebrating the winners
Events – hosted by the previous year’s winners – take place in each of the 8 regions to celebrate the category winners and overall regional winner.
The winners present their projects and receive a framed certificate.
- Read more about the Market Town Awards 2010 Regional Showcase Events
All the winning projects join our Case Studies Database of good practice and receive local and national media attention.
The overall winner from each region goes on to present their project to over 200 people at the National Market Town Awards which take place at Action for Market Towns’ annual Convention in October.
Based on these presentations and their knowledge of the projects, the judges decide who will be the National Market Town Awards Overall Winner.
The Overall Winner is announced at a Gala Dinner at the AMT Convention.
What type of projects win?
Award-winning projects are those that successfully tackle common small town problems, which might be:
- bank and post office closures
- concentration of services in larger towns
- decline of traditional shopping centres due to out-of-town shopping parks
- the end of manufacturing industries and lack of new jobs
- the lure of large cities which leaves many towns as dormitories
Read about our Market Town Awards 2010 regional winners and all our Market Town Awards 2009 winners (archive of past years’ winners to follow soon).
What are the judges looking for?
The judges look for projects that:
- show innovation or creativity in design, delivery or execution
- show long-term financial viability or a contribution to the social, environmental and economic quality of life for local people
- involve the local community and community partnerships in the development and delivery of the project from an early stage
- include links to Market Town Healthchecks or similar research and consultation exercises or to strategic regional strategy or policy documents
A significant proportion of the project activity must have been completed after 1 April of the previous year and before 31 March of the year of the Awards.
Could you be a winner?
If you’ve been involved in or know of a great initiative in your town, why not register it for next year’s Market Town Awards? You’ll then get all the details on how to apply as soon as the Awards launch.
You can also take a look at How to enter the Market Town Awards to find out what information you will need to have ready for your application.
